Larne move top of Irish Premiership after weekend win

With the tie scoreless at the break, Leroy Millar broke the deadlock on 59 minutes before Mark Randall sealed the win for the east Antrim outfit three minutes later.

Speaking to the club’s Media Director Ian Cahoon after the clash, manager Tiernan Lynch said: “The players knew they underperformed in the first half and they kind of marshalled that themselves. You get out of football what you put in, and in the first half we didn’t put enough in.

"Second half, I think we bossed the game. Our intensity increased, we played quicker, we played forward and we got the goals. There is a massive month ahead, but they are games we are relishing. We’ll know at the end of this month where we sit.

"There’s a real determination now that we want to keep clean sheets. We don’t want to concede goals.”

Lynch, who last week was named the Manager of the Month by the Northern Ireland Football Writers’ Association.for September, added: “There’s no such thing as personal accolades in football. All I do is pick up that award on behalf of not just the coaching staff or the players, but the whole club.

"I think you just have to be around the club to see the work that is going on, both on the field and off the field and that cohesiveness and collectiveness that’s there. Congratulations to everybody who was involved.”

Next up in the league, Larne welcome third-placed Cliftonville to Inver Park on Friday, October 14 (7.45pm).

Larne’s east Antrim neighbours Carrick Rangers fell to a 5-0 defeat to Glentoran in east Belfast on Friday evening.

Struart King’s charges were 4-0 down at the interval thanks to goals from Aidan Wilson (15), Jay Donnelly (24), Shay McCartan (26) and Conor McMenamin (45).

Patrick McClean rounded off the scoring for the home side with around 15 minutes left to play.

Speaking to Carrick’s media team after the game, King explained: “In the first half I thought they were outstanding. We didn’t get to grips with them and I thought they really looked like a professional team. They’re big and strong. They are really dangerous from set-plays and to be honest, we couldn’t cope with them in the first half.

"There were a few choice words at half time. You can say they’re a professional outfit and all that, but it’s 11v11 and you have to win your personal battles. We came out and we did a wee bit better in the second half. It’s a tough night. It’s a hard place to come and get anything, but I just want us to be in the game for a lot longer. The game was done after half an hour.

"Our season won’t be defined by playing Glentoran at The Oval. Our season will be defined on results, especially at home.”

Next up for Rangers in the Premiership is a home match with Dungannon Swifts on Saturday, October 15 (3pm).

Meanwhile, in the Lough 41 NIFL Championship, Loughgall’s unbeaten start to the season continued thanks to a 4-0 win over Ballyclare Comrades at Dixon Park on Saturday, October 8..

Scoreless at the break, the Co Armagh outfit scored their four unanswered goals in the final half an hour to strengthen their grip at the top of the table.

Nedas Maciulaitis found the net twice (60 and 69), Alan Teggart got the third on (79) and Benjamin Magee scored with two minutes left to play.

Speaking to the south Antrim club’s media officer Zoe Tisdale after the game, Assistant Manager Chris Ramsey said: “They took their chances when they came along and it’s just something we have to take on the chin. We’ll have to iron out the things that went wrong in the second half.

"In the first half, I thought we were really good. They made a change in the second half, bringing one of their strikers deeper. We’ve young centre backs here and there were times when they weren’t sure whether to go or stick with him.

"We made changes when it was 2-0 to try and get us back into the game. I think when we made the changes, we changed shape to try and get more forward players onto the pitch. As we changed shape, I think the message has been lost in translation, where we thought we could put two full backs on at the same time. When you do that, you start going gung ho and teams are obviously going to take advantage of the spaces that you’re leaving and Loughgall did that clinically to be fair.

"There are things we can take away from the game. Individual performances and obviously collectively in the first half.”

Next up for the eighth-placed Comrades is an away trip to face second-placed Annagh United on Saturday (3pm).

Commenting ahead of the match. Ramsey added: “We’ll try and iron out the mistakes. We always give whoever we are playing the respect they deserve. We’ll look at what Annagh do well and focus on that. We’ll look at ourselves too and see what we can do to exploit other teams’ weaknesses.

"We’ll look to try and get players into the team who we think will hurt Annagh as well as players who we think will be able to deal with the threats they offer.”